Beaumont reactivating plans for Royal Oak expansion

ROYAL OAK — William Beaumont Hospital is reactivating a $140 million plan to construct a new north pavilion, part of which will replace the 62,875-square-foot emergency center it opened in 2001.

The four-story addition will encompass 310,000 square feet with the new emergency center occupying a majority of the first floor, including universal private-treatment rooms, according to the hospital’s letter of intent, filed with the Michigan Department of Community Health on March 29.

Certificate of need applications are required through the Michigan Department of Community Health, which monitors construction of medical facilities in the state.

Beaumont’s board of trustees has already approved funding for the project’s design, a downsized version of a plan from 2008, said Colette Stimmell, director of communications for Beaumont Health System.

“We’re going to look at what we designed before and update it a little bit,” she said.

Beaumont initially filed a request five years ago to build a $204 million facility that would contain a 96,000-square-foot emergency center, a 36-bed intensive care unit, four operating rooms, a powerhouse and 173 additional private patient rooms. The project was shelved after the economy entered recession.

Stimmell said the downturn of Michigan’s economy resulted in a “diminishment in volume at Beaumont Health System,” leading to the decision to put a hold on construction efforts.

The new plan calls for 4,500 square feet of space of the first floor to be set aside for future retail purposes.

Other floors will be used to hold mechanical and electrical equipment for future programs, according to the letter of intent.

In the “shelled space” allocated on each floor for future development, “we could eventually build out the operating rooms, the surgical facilities that we had originally planned,” Stimmell said.

A new entry drive for the emergency center and north pavilion would be constructed, as well as a new parking lot. A walkway for patients and visitors would be constructed to connect the new pavilion to the south side of the hospital, the letter of intent stated.

Stimmell said the board will meet again at the end of the month to discuss approval of construction fees for the project.

Construction could begin as early as this fall if the hospital receives all local regulatory approvals needed to move forward with the project, she added.

The estimated completion date for construction is fall 2015.

“We think this will be a huge benefit for the patients we serve in our emergency center, as well as our staff,” Stimmel said. “It’s going to provide a facility that allows our staff to provide care much more efficiently.”

Contact Ryan Felton at 248-745-4654 or ryan.felton@oakpress.com. Follow him on Twitter @ryanfelton13.